Long-Expected Update

Wow, it's certainly been a while. I will say (and this excuse sounds rather familiar) that it's somewhat understandable, my neglecting of this blog, as I have a tendency to give preferential treatment to my Facebook cosplaying page. Anyway, all excuses aside, here are some updates. 

Cosplays in progress:

Fem!Loki - nearing completion

Needs wig and golden chest piece/necklace thingy

Jack Sparrow - underway

Coat finished

Vest - all fabrics and buttons purchased

Shirt - fabric purchased, pieces cut out and serged

Accessories and makeup purchased

(Bad picture; will take better pictures soon!)

Thranduil - preparations made

Fabric (silver brocade, sparkle mesh), piping material acquired 

Wig purchased, makeup practiced 

Crown materials acquired

Rather hasty makeup test

Tauriel-inspired Ensemble - underway

Green linen dress finished

Leather bodice finished

Bracers, daggers in progress

Secondary Tauriel Dress in Olive Green Taffeta - Underway 

Will need sleeves installed, and is meant to be paired with an under bust bodice

#HobbitChallenge Video - Voting Live

Fairly straightforward. I'm coercing my family and friends into voting for my "Hide and Seek with Smaug" HobbitChallenge video. Because that's basically all I can do, right? (I can't bring myself to post it on Facebook. Much too embarrassing.)

Anyway, you just go to the link I've provided, scroll through until you find my video (it'll probably be on page 4 or 5) helpfully labeled "Sarah Martin" with a hideous still of me looking like some bizarre reject from the Beatles, click on it, and then click the vote button beneath the video until you get a message saying something like, "Vote recorded. Come back tomorrow and vote again." <---extremely sage counsel, don't you think?

Here's the link. https://fanchallenge.thehobbit.com/?entryid=440 

Go vote. I'll wait. :)

Did you vote?

Did you?

Did you really?

Yay!

I'm so proud of you! :D *hands out majestic cupcakes*

I'm about 98% certain my video won't win, but where's the harm in trying, right? Thanks, you guys. You're all majestic. 

Not nearly as majestic as Thorin, but more majestic than Kíli. :)  

Final Version, Bilbo Blue Coat

I finally found some motivation and finished my 3rd attempt at Bilbo's blue coat. All the attempts have been successful, but I'm particularly pleased with how the latest one turned out. I only wish I had better lighting for photos. The current lighting tends to wash out the colors. Le sigh.

Anyway, my process for making this warm, ragged beauty began with altering my pattern. I originally had a tunic pattern I used for all my tunics, but I decided at the last second that it simply didn't get the sleeves right at all. I found a pattern for men's pajamas (!) that was much closer, and altered it accordingly. 

The dog's like, "Someone please kill me."

Anyway, I altered the medium size men's top because it had very wide, roomy sleeves with the arm hole very much off the shoulder. Perfect for Bilbo's blue coat (that's one thing that is very important to do before beginning patterning: study the pictures of the original like you'll be taking an exam on them!) . 

My alterations are evidenced in the following pictures. I altered the back neck cutout, the front neckline, lengthened the sleeves (they need to be folded up, remember), lengthened the lower "panels," and split the front and back at the waist, adding 5/8" on each piece to accommodate the seam.

I cut out all the pieces, first sewing all the panels back together, then sewing the center back seam and the sides down to the waist seam. I did this for both the main, cotton velvet fabric and the linen/wool blend lining fabric.

When I'd finished and set the sleeves in, I set about making the trim. Bilbo's coat trim is allegedly "ratted up grey faux fur." I opted to use raw wool because it was frizzy and fuzzy, much like the "fur" they used, and would look more real than a synthetic fur trim. It wasn't easy, but I think the end result was worth it.

First, I washed the raw wool (got it from a seller on etsy), let it dry, and then basically sandwiched each individual cut strand in between a piece of bias tape I'd opened out and then pressed in half.

I used a bit of fabric glue to tack the ends of the pieces down, waited for that to dry, then sewed along the edge to hold the wool strands in place. After I'd completed enough trim to do the center front and the sleeves, it was time to dye it. The trim on Bilbo's coat is a grayish-biege, and since I didn't have any grey dye, I opted to use a solution of water and acrylic paint. I heated a cauldron of water, added a healthy bit of paint, stirred it up, and then added the trim. I let it sit in the black water for about 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally, and then removed it, rinsed it, and let it air dry. 

To finish the coat, I first sewed the lower panels of the main fabric and lining together, leaving the center back panels open for turning purposes...

Then I hand basted the trim into the center front seam.

And sewed the seam at the precise measurement so none of the bias tape would be visible once the coat was turned right side out. That, of course, was the next step (after trimming the seams, corners, and clipping the curves). 

Once that was done, I had only to sew up the back panels using a slipstitch, then sew the remaining trim to the outer side of the lining fabric of the sleeves, turn it so the trim was outwards, and then slipstitch the velvet over it to cover the seam/bias tape, and press the seams.

Not the real belt I'll be using. I don't think so, anyway. Now I just need a cravat. I plan to create that through silk painting, and I have most of the correct colors already.

If anyone finds this not-quite-a-tutorial useful, I'd love to hear from you. Or if you have any questions about how I accomplished a particular technique, I am more than happy to elaborate/clarify. :-)

In case you're wondering, the coat is very warm, and very comfy. I may end up wearing it for daily outings and/or around the house, as I need to break it in a little. Bilbo's, as you may have observed, has a lot of the velvet pile shredded and missing. I may do some of that later on (I'll probably use sandpaper and a cheese grater), but for now, I intend to enjoy a newish version of the coat. 

"Hide and Seek with Smaug" Hobbit Challenge Video

Secondary titles for this post: "Making a Movie in Seven Days, Alone, on a Shoestring Budget"; "A Really, Really Bad Idea."

Smaug costume: 3 days, $15. Most of the materials I already had on hand, with the exception of the gold fabric for the wings.

Bilbo's blue coat: 2 days, $5. Again, I already had most of the materials, and since I opted to use a blue fleece to make a mockup of the coat before making it in my real materials, I'm using the mockup for the movie for the sake of saving time. It still turned out quite nicely, I must say.

(This picture was taken before I kind of ruined the coat by trying to age it with grey Rit dye. It dyed the rabbit fur trim a light purple, and shrunk it so it misshaped the center front. I'll have to remove the fur along the front and replace it with a synthetic faux fur, like the fur on the sleeves.)

Backdrop: 1 night, $8. I magically happened upon a brocade that looks remarkably like piles and piles of gold. It's not perfect, but with these time constraints, I don't have the luxury of being picky. I'll probably end up setting up in the garage, because the lighting isn't as dim as the rest of the house, and my iPad camera is rubbish if the light isn't ideal.

Done! Finished editing, which went remarkably smoothly, did my terrible imitation of the soundtrack, and posted the video. It's not amazing by any stretch of the imagination, but it's fun, and done with sincerity (very hard to play the scene without turning it into comic relief, simply because it's so hard not to be aware of how cheesy everything comes across when you're in a dragon costume and imitating Benedict Cumberbatch's digitally enhanced already low voice and painstakingly animated motion capture performance. And yet, it was fun, and I'll look back on the experience fondly. If nothing else, I got a couple of nice costumes out of it.

The finished product? 

http://youtu.be/1wki6jfScgs

Incidentally, for those of you who might be interested in voting for my video once the contest voting starts, I shall post a link in a subsequent update. :) Of course, if you're too traumatized to do so, I won't hold it against you.

Future cosplay plans:

1- Thranduil, BotFA tent attire; because everyone's favorite Elvenking looks amazing even when he's lounging around drinking wine and rolling his eyes at Gandalf. I have evil plans that my younger brother might wear this cosplay to the One Last Party at the end of the month.

2- Bilbo Baggins, 1.0 (coat still in progress; wig came in the mail today and needs to be styled)

3- Bilbo Baggins, 2.0 (mockup coat finished; will be making it in blue cotton velvet and a linen/wool blend); posting a sketchy tutorial for anyone who's interested, because my pattern rocks. I'm all about accuracy, and this is pretty darned accurate. (Just saying.)

Progress on Bilbo cosplay, Finished Thorin Royal Regalia, and fem!Smaug

I've been sorely neglecting this blog, unfortunately, due to general busy-ness and fact that most of my updates have been taking place on my Facebook cosplay page. 

*awkward transition* I took some lovely pictures of my finished Thorin cosplay, which was fun. It's not 100% done, to be completely honest, but it's definitely getting there. 

Thus far, pretty much the only picture that's turned up of my cosplay in action. The beard is terrible, I know. Due to a number of malfunctions on the way, my normal lace beard was out of commission, so I ended up having to make one using paint and mascara. Looks more like Kíli than, well, Kíli. *dies of shame*

As for my Bilbo costume, it's temporarily gone on hiatus, but I'd finished the outer layer when I put it away in favor of preparing for the con (WizardCon). 

So. Much. Hobbity-ness. 

And now I'm on to fem!Smaug for a contest video I'm going to attempt before the first of February. Here's where it stands as of now. (Working on the wings today.)

"My claws are SPEARS!!!" (These are made out of wet-formed leather, dyed and painted. Very sturdy.)

Bilbo Cosplay, Part II: Undershirt and Waistcoat

Alright, me beauties. I have returned once again, after several days of work. The Bilbo cosplay is coming along, which is good, as I really, really want to work on Thorin 1.0, version 2.0. I'm sure that makes perfect sense.

So. The Bilbo cosplay outfit where it stands right now, minus trousers (which I have):

The color in this picture is totally wrong. It's definitely not greenish brown. It's a very nice, bright olive. I hate my iPad camera sometimes. I'll try to get a picture in daylight later on.

Conclusions I have come to after making this shirt and waistcoat? Plackets and welt pockets are evil, evil, EVIL. No matter. I have conquered. They picked the wrong seamstress to tangle with.

The base pattern for both of these was really unhelpful most of the time, as either the seam placement was entirely wrong, or the sizing, or the shape was off and required adjusting. There's nothing like pattern modification to make a project take at least twice as long, and I felt every second of that extension in time and effort. 

The Shirt

The undershirt was partially completed in my last post, so I won't spend too much time on it. Basically, I attached the sleeves (check out that amazing sleeve design!), did the placket and collar, and hemmed it. 

It works. Not particularly accurate, since this isn't the shirt Bilbo wore on his journey, but whatever. Any men's dress shirt would suffice for that, anyway, and I'll probably buy one at some point.

The Waistcoat

The simple, wool waistcoat gave me a lot more hell than I thought it would. Firstly, welt pockets. These guys are mean. The amount of measuring and marking required makes me shudder, and you have to place everything really accurately, or you end up with a mess, some of it quite possibly irreversible. Terrifying, I know. Anyway, being the smart person I am, I decided to make a mockup first. 

The pattern instructions might as well have been in orcish, and the pictures were drawn by a neophyte, so my first attempt was disastrous. Unsurprisingly, I found what amounted to a support group online for people traumatized by this particular pattern. My second mockup was much better, and actually worked, so I finally finished the welt pockets on the real waistcoat. 

"Shiiiiiire.... welt pocketssssssss..."

Then I could actually move on to constructing it, which went relatively quickly. Sewed together the main pieces, sewed together the lining, fitted it to the dress form. Altered and adjusted shape of the lower front, lengthened neckline in front, sewed lining and main fabric together and turned. Top-stitched, and then sewed button holes. Since I've decided this cosplay will be "post-Goblin Town Bilbo," that means there's only one button. One glorious, brass, acorn button. I ordered it from Weta, straight from New Zealand, and I swear a choir of Elves sang all around me when I opened the package. ;)

Beautiful button. Beautiful acorn button. Currently obsessed with acorns for no reason at all. *whistles innocently* I sewed it on the waistcoat, and it brought it all together beautifully. Now I just need better pictures of it. 

Fancy Cloak, Original Design:

I also made a lovely green linen cloak over the past few days, which began as a demonstration for a friend and then proceeded to take way longer than it should have. I opted for a gold brocade for the hood lining, a gold web trimming for the front, and a very blingy buckle for the clasp. It actually looks pretty good with Bilbo's costume. *grins* (Horrible pictures, I know. *sigh* Must use better lighting next time.)

Up next, we will have a beauteous blog post concerning everyone's favorite burgundy corduroy frock coat. So iconic. So amazing. So Bilbo. *squee* Can't wait.

Work in Progress: Bilbo Cosplay Outfit V. 1

Well, it has definitely been a while since my last update, mostly due to a recent lengthy trip to the U.K., followed hard upon by a lengthy stay at a friend's house (we had a very extended New Year's party based around the viewing of the six Hobbit/LotR films). It's good to be home now, though I haven't been feeling terribly well these past few days. 

After organizing and unpacking for a day or so, I decided my next big project would be a Bilbo outfit- the one he wears throughout the first film and most of the second. It's actually not my favorite of his clothes (the blue coat with the fuzzy trim is really hard to beat), but it's more iconic, and certainly the under layers would need to be made for either costume, as Bilbo wears those throughout all three films. I will be remaking the blue coat after I'm done with this project. I've already purchased the fabric for it and prewashed it. *super excited*

Bilbo Ensemble, V. 1

Having already completed a mockup of the coat pattern in a hideous orangey linen, I've made good progress on that aspect of the costume, which I'd argue is the most important, as it's more visible than any of the other pieces. I already tried it on its intended recipient (my good friend Juno will be cosplaying Bilbo/Billa, which excites me to no end), and the fit is decent. Just a few tweaks to be made.

With functional pocket! (I think I may be slightly more enthused about this pocket than I should be.)

Tonight, then, with the entire costume in mind, I decided to start on prewashing all the fabric I'd received in the mail (it was like Christmas morning when I got back from my trip and all my new fabric had shown up; my bed was practically buried in packages), to ensure it wouldn't shrink when it needed to be washed after garment completion. I also dyed the corduroy (for the coat) which began as more of a rust color and is progressing toward burgundy. I will probably dye the finished coat rather than the whole fabric piece again. 

Corduroy. Bad lighting. *sigh*

Then I set to work on the undershirt, since it's always best to start on the bottom and work one's way outward in an ensemble. There are some very good shots of Bilbo's undershirt available online, mostly taken from the part in the first film where he's interacting with the dwarves before the unexpected party and reading the contract. I generally strive for accuracy - even in layers that won't necessarily be seen - so I spent a good deal of time analyzing screen shots of the shirt. It's made of what seems to be a thin cotton or linen printed or woven with alternating stripes in shades of cream and biege. 

I'd spent a while seeking out such a fabric, to little avail. Eventually, I found a linen online that had a very nice stripey weave to it, in the right colors. When I received it, I realized it was quite heavier than what Bilbo has in the film, but as far as I'm concerned, that's a bonus. It will be very durable for wearing, and since it's linen, should breathe nicely. It also looks reasonably accurate. 

Thus far, I've cut out my pieces and assembled the front and back. It looks more like a poncho right now than a shirt, thanks to the unusual placement of the sleeve seam. However, once the sleeves are sewn in, it will be very comfortable to wear. Lots of room to move. I wasn't able to find a pattern that was terribly helpful for making this shirt, though, as always, I started with a base pattern to modify. It was an 1800's Western pattern with frock coats and vests and such, but the undershirt didn't have the right sleeves or collar. It had a placket, though, even if it was too long. Basically, the pattern was more like a guideline, and I didn't use it much beyond a size reference.

Bilbo took a trip south of the border... 

Anyway, now that all the pesky stuff is out of the way, I'll be installing the sleeves, collar, cuffs, and placket. Which will probably try to make themselves equally annoying. With any luck, I'll have this finished by the end of tomorrow and be ready to move on to the green wool vest/waistcoat.